Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Deniers

Leaving entirely aside many reputable scientists who disagree with current "conventional wisdom" on global warming, here's a heads up on those who use the term "such and such denier" whether speaking of the Holocaust or global warming (or anything else for that matter).

The phrase "____________ denier" is an epithet and is always and only used to stifle dissent. Make no mistake about it; those who use the term denier do so in a clear attempt to equate "global-warming deniers" and "holocaust deniers". And it's no accident; the term was picked--and is used--specifically for its connotation. The term "denier" is nothing but a tool of megalomaniacal true believers who hold that reason and respectful discussion have no place in human interaction once they have made up their minds.

In one sense they are correct: reason has no place in their interactions and those who use the term are somewhat generously stating clearly that your attempts to reason with them will probably be useless and (more important) will be treated by them as useless. In other words, those who use the term have minds like steel traps; nothing gets in.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Farrakhan

From: CNN

Sunday, he said Jesus and Mohammed "are brothers who come from the same eternal God[...]How dare us try to split up the prophets and make them enemies of each other to justify our being enemies," he said. "If Jesus and Mohammed were on this stage, they would embrace each other with love. If Moses and the prophets and Abraham the father would be on this podium with all the prophets, they would embrace each other."

Well, yeah...but duh.

Still, glad ya finally figured that out, Louis.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Natural Allies?

HERE

Christiane Amanpour on a senior Iranian government official's view of Iran and the USA as "natural allies".

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

God I hate Real Player...

Who knows why, but I do.

So the good news is The Real Alternative. Scumware-free freeware and works just fine.

Good news because now you can conveniently view the details of the 1957 Spaghetti Harvest (ram format video) rather than just read about it.

The vintage beauty of mid-50's Swiss spaghetti plantations is something to see, especially given that the Swiss plantations were nowhere near as mechanized as those of the much larger Italian industry.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Yup.

How's this for hardball?
For millennia, the world’s great prophets and theologians have applied their collective genius to the riddle of womanhood. The result has been polygamy, sati, honor killing, punitive rape, genital mutilation, forced marriages, a cultic obsession with virginity, compulsory veiling, the persecution of unwed mothers, and other forms of physical and psychological abuse so kaleidoscopic in variety as to scarcely admit of concise description.

You go, Sam.

John McCain & Roe v. Wade

John McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

The point, though, is not that Roe v. Wade should be overturned; it's that Roe v. Wade should be unnecessary. The state has no business imposing its will on the procreative decisions of its citizens. Period.

Sure, you folks who think abortion is murder have strong arguments in your favour, even when the arguments aren't faith based. And you pro-choice supporters have strong arguments, too.

Great. So how about y'all congratulate yourselves on how right your opinion is on the subject--but otherwise just stay the fuck out of it, and leave the folks most directly involved alone to make their own decision.

That'd be good.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

A Soon-to-be Classic Fark Thread

HERE.

Oh, what the heck...here: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2618004

If ever a thread deserved preservation of the full URL, this it it.

Fun with Numbers.

I found this statistic in an otherwise OK article about male depression:

Men with depression and heart disease are two or three times more likely to die than men with heart disease who are not depressed.
Not true.

Men with depression and heart disease are exactly as likely to die as men with depression but no heart disease or, for that matter, men with heart disease but no depression.

The odds for all of 'em is 100%, one per customer.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Liberty Arcade

The Liberty Arcade

Games for People in Complex Societies.

Friday, February 16, 2007

You do realize, of course...

that Chavez is an unmitigated dick-head. And he shares these character flaws with Bush: he's egocentric enough--and shallow enough in his knowledge--to think he means well. Chavez surely musta attended the Mugabe-Marx/Fabian-Forte school of economics.

One good thing, though--his subjects will be able to afford all the items they won't be able to buy; which is to say: supply will be non-existent, but the price tags will look attractive.

Ah well, I suppose the world can always use another example of collectivist mismanagement.

Not that there's any shortage.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau

talking about married life and being together...

Do you folks not see that this is just another example of "sometimes the government oughtta just fuck off and stay out of it." Woulda been better if they'da done that. Instead, these two nice folks just got dicked around endlessly. I'm sure the whole situation kept a lot of social workers and bureaucrats busy, though...

Near the end of the interview Letourneau says words to the effect of "I see what the norm is, I mean I recognize it, but there's so many things in life that just don't fall into that norm."

Exactly. And the "so many things in life that just don't fall into that norm" are what FREEDOM is for.

Again...

Ahmadinejad interviewed by Diane Sawyer (ABC news video)

What's the again part?

This:

People are not their caricatures.

I'll say it again: the United States is badly misreading this guy.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Justa couple of cover tunes...

Some of you know I play music.

Here's links to a couple of generic cover tunes featuring Jamie Rosenthal on guitar, me on harp & vocals, and Jeff McCann on midi and mixin'...

Nothin earthshattering, but very much fun...